REVIEW 320: AB TAK CHHAPPAN 2

Sadhu Agashe is back.
Eleven years after Shimit Amin’s Ab Tak
Chhappan (ATC) comes its sequel
directed by Aejaz Gulab. Both are reportedly inspired by real-life Mumbai
policeman Daya Nayak who earned the epithet “encounter specialist” in the 1990s
for the number of gangsters he had eliminated. In the films he is a
fictionalised Sadhu Agashe (Nana Patekar).

ATC1 (produced by Ram Gopal Varma) followed Agashe through his
daily battles on the streets of India’s commercial capital, the internal
politics in the force, police corruption and the murder of his wife. It was a
compelling film. The sequel, on the other hand, comes off feeling generic.

At the start of Ab Tak Chhappan 2, Mumbai is reeling
under a crime wave and gang wars. Maharashtra’s Gandhian chief minister Anna (Dilip
Prabhavalkar) wants to cleanse the city, and on the advise of the now retired
Police Commissioner Pradhan (Mohan Agashe), Sadhu is coaxed out of his
premature retirement in Goa by Anna-saab’s second-in-command, Home Minister
Jagirdar (Vikram Gokhale). Agashe is initially reluctant because of his earlier
unpleasant experiences with the force, but is persuaded to return by his son
who reminds him that he is a cop at heart and will always remain one. Back in
Mumbai, Sadhu throws himself into his job, only to discover that the more
things change the more they remain the same.

ATC1 was about the internecine wars in the Mumbai police. ATC2 is about the relationship between
the police and the political establishment. As with the first film, here too
Sadhu can’t see eye to eye with one of his strong-willed juniors (played by Yashpal
Sharma in the first film and Ashutosh Rana in this one). There’s a been-there-seen-that
feel to the whole thing including Nana Patekar’s one-note performance. As Sadhu
he is given lengthy monologues which he delivers in his trademark monotone that
has earned him so much critical acclaim over the years that the actor in him often
seems not to be trying to expand his repertoire of expressions.

On the positive side, the film dwells at some length on the rather
sweet relationship between Sadhu and his son, which is more relaxed and
buddy-like than most father-son relationships we see in Bollywood, without
seeming contrived like the bond between the Bachchans’ characters in Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. ATC2 also works at an interesting dual pace: relaxed and calm when we first meet the
protagonist in his Goan idyll; unrelentingly in motion when he is at work once
he returns to the Mumbai police force, with the camerawork and editing complemented by Sandeep Chowta’s background score, all
designed to make it seem as if the portions where he is on the job were each
done in a single, very long, continuous take. The pace, however, can’t
compensate for the feeling of déjà vu that the story and the acting carry, or its
verbosity, or the predictability of the supposed twists and turns in the final
half hour, or the coolth it clearly sees in violence committed by good cops.

Ab Tak Chhappan 2 is not a film worthy of hate or intense dislike.
It just does not have much that’s new to offer. It’s hard to understand why
this film needed to be made.

About Me

Anna MM Vetticad is an award-winning journalist, journalism teacher and author of the critically acclaimed bestseller The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic, an overview of the Hindi film industry presented through an account of a year in which she watched every single Bollywood film released in India’s National Capital Region. A journalist since 1994, she has worked with India Today, The Indian Express and Headlines Today. At HT she hosted her own interview show Star Trek which drew all India’s eminent entertainment personalities. While Anna has spent most of her career as a behind-the-scenes editorial person, she has also reported on most major Indian entertainment and lifestyle events and several international ones including Cannes and the Oscars, in addition to being the film critic for Headlines Today. She is currently reporting and writing for multiple publications on cinema and social issues with a focus on gender concerns. The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic is available on amazon.com, ebay.in, flipkart.com, ombooksinternational.com, ombooks.com, infibeam.com, homeshop18.com and dialabook.in among other websites, and in stores across India. Twitter: @annavetticad